A chemical found in black licorice could help fight one of the world’s deadliest cancers, a unique study shows.
A study in mice found that the flavonoid isoliquiritigenin (ISL), found in licorice root, an herb widely used in traditional Chinese medicine, can kill pancreatic cancer cells.
Researchers in Hong Kong also found that the drug could make treatments like chemotherapy more effective.
Director of Studies Dr. Joshua Ko Ka-Shun said, “This compound deserves consideration for advancing into a new generation of chemotherapy treatments.”
‘[Pancreatic cancer] is difficult to recognize and is usually only discovered at a late stage because there are not many treatment options available. “There is an urgent need to find an appropriate treatment.”
Isoliquiritigenin (ISL) is a compound found in black licorice. Researchers in Hong Kong found that it can suppress the growth of pancreatic cancer cells and enable certain types of chemotherapy
The National Cancer Institute estimates that just over 44 percent of patients with pancreatic cancer survive more than five years if the disease persists in its original area. The average survival rate is 12 percent
When ISL was injected into tumors, the survival rate of these cancer cells fell by 50 to 80 percent, depending on the dosage.
About 11 to 13 percent of the cells entered the late stage of apoptosis or cell death, compared to less than five percent of the cells that did not receive ISL.
“ISL has the unique property of inhibiting the progression of pancreatic cancer by blocking autophagy, a natural process by which the body’s cells shed damaged or unnecessary components,” said Dr. knockout
“The late-stage blockade of autophagy in our experiments leads to the death of cancer cells.”
Researchers also tested the effects of ISL on the chemotherapy drugs gemcitabine (GEM) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU).
The success rate of these drugs is usually low, as low as 10 percent, and many patients develop resistance to them after a few months of treatment.
However, the team found that adding ISL to GEM suppressed the growth of cancer cells by 18 percent and adding it to 5-FU blocked growth by 30 percent.
Pancreatic cancer is the third deadliest form of the disease in the United States, after lung and colon cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.
On average, only 12.5 percent survive after five years.
The NCI estimates that more than half of these cases are diagnosed after the disease has spread to other organs because early symptoms, such as jaundice and abdominal pain, are easily missed.
As the cancer progresses to later stages, the survival rate drops to as little as three percent.
This has led to pancreatic cancer being dubbed the “silent killer.”
The number of cases is also increasing. According to the American Cancer Society, the incidence of the disease in the United States has increased by 1 percent every year since 2000.
Global cases have doubled since 1990, according to a 2019 study in The Lancet.
The research is still in its infancy and Dr. Ko urged the public not to consume large amounts of licorice to prevent cancer.
However, the team is optimistic that ISL could be used in treatment in the years to come.
“The results of this study open a new avenue for the development of ISL as a novel autophagy inhibitor in the treatment of pancreatic cancer,” said Dr. knockout
“We hope to collaborate with other research partners to further evaluate the efficacy and potential clinical application of ISL in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.”